Thematic guide: labour market (using qualitative data)

Labour markets are an important concern for sociological enquiry. Industrialisation and capitalism have resulted in more and more people coming to depend on labour markets.

In turn, this has impacted significantly on patterns of migration from less-industrialised to more-industrialised countries.

Social scientists researching in this area are often interested in the macro functioning and dynamics of the labour market, the micro-relations between employers and workers, and how the struggles between them result in specific patterns of wages, employment contracts and various forms of inequality.

The theme of the labour market is strongly represented by recent research that has been added to our online catalogue.

Eade and Garapich's Class and Ethnicity: Polish Migrant Workers in London

Searching for related materials

The Discover catalogue can be searched for data on labour markets studies using subject terms such as:

employment

education

trade unions

human resources

management

training

Every data collection is accompanied by comprehensive documentation. These are open access and available to the public from the website and it is not necessary to be a registered user to access and download them.

The content of the documentation varies by collection, but usually includes information such as the initial proposal, interview schedule, description of methodology, end of award report, and so on.

In some cases more details are provided, such as the coding schemes of the original researchers or examples of the consent forms used.

Sample: young people aged 16-18 years old who were in jobs without training in Warwickshire and Middlesbrough, 2007 Data: 36 interviews

employment

training

education

youth

career development

SN 6109 Market for Migrant Domestic and Sex Workers, 2002-2006 O'Connell Davidson, J. and Anderson, B. The study explored attitudes towards, and experience of, the markets for migrant domestic and sex workers in the UK and Spain through a combination of interview and survey research. It aimed to examine continuities and discontinuities between domestic work and sex work, paying particular attention to the role of the social/cultural imagination in constructing a market for migrant workers.

Sample: residents of Luton or Sheffield in 2001, (aged 17 to 64) suffering from no less than three specific problems/needs Data:50 interviews

criminal justice system

employment

family

homelessness

multiple problems

health

unemployment

SN 6099 'Brain Drain' Debate in the United Kingdom, c.1950-1970 Balmer, B., Gregory, J. and Godwin, M. This qualitative project sought to provide an analysis of the 'brain drain' debate of the 1950s and 1960s as a social phenomenon. The term 'brain drain' was adopted in the 1960s in the context of concerns the United Kingdom was losing skilled scientific and engineering personnel to other countries.

SN 5041 Changing Organisational Forms and the Re-shaping of Work: Case Study Interviews, 1999-2002 Marchington, M., Rubery, J. and Willmott, H. The project collected data, via in-depth qualitative case studies of inter-organisational networks, on the role of employment relations and how these new organisational forms operate in practice. They examined the increasing fragmentation of organisations, and evidence that human resources (HR) policies are unable to resolve the potential conflicts and contradictions inherent in the employment relationship.